Nonlinear Waves and the Origin of Bubbles in Fluidized Beds

Early experiments in the mid-1940s established two different regimes of behavior of fluidized systems. These are broadly classified into systems that exhibit massive phase segregation, leading to particle-free regions called bubbles, and those that do not. Explaining the origin of bubbles and of these two regimes has represented both a technological and scientific challenge since then. The late 1960s through the 1970s saw a series of illuminating experiments that established many features of the flow regimes and their characteristics through both flow visualizations and quantitative measurements. Recent numerical and theoretical work has come close the resolving the problem. This paper represents the written version of the talk given at the Symposium in honor of Leen van Wijngaarden's retirement. In it, I review the history of progress on the problem in two giant 25-year steps.